Mohammad Kanfash

Mohammad Kanfash is an Associate at the Clingendael Academy. He joined Clingendael in 2022 as an external trainer in humanitarian negotiation, delivering training and capacity building programmes for humanitarian actors and practitioners. He brings 18 years of experience in protection and policy work in various capacities across the Middle East and Europe, including more than a decade with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Syria, Egypt and the Netherlands. Between 2015 and 2019, Mohammad led Damaan Humanitarian Organization, a Syrian Dutch humanitarian and development NGO that operated in hard to reach areas in Syria.

Mohammad is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Conflict Studies at Utrecht University, where he previously held research and teaching positions, lecturing on the politics of reconstruction, mobilization, and violence. His current research examines the use and impact of sanctions in the Syrian context. He is the recipient of two NWO research grants awarded for his work on the role of local intermediaries in conflict management and conflict resolution, state consolidation, and post conflict reconstruction.

Alongside his passion for training and working with practitioners, Mohammad has (co )authored book chapters, academic articles and research papers with work published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Disasters, the Syria Studies Journal, the London School of Economics, Clingendael Institute and the Dutch Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Non Lethal Assistance Programme in Syria. He frequently provides commentary on Syrian affairs in Dutch and international media.

He serves as a member of the Board of Studies and PhD Council at the Utrecht University Faculty of Humanities and is affiliated with the University’s Contesting Governance research platform.